Legal News and Headlines
Legal News and Headlines
The Northern District of Georgia ruled that soft‑selling text messages offering to buy a homeowner’s property can qualify as TCPA telephone solicitations when they aim to promote services, even without explicit service language. The court upheld the plaintiff’s claim for messages that implied a fee‑based transaction, but dismissed broader theories unrelated to the alleged service. The decision emphasizes that courts will examine the business model and context of marketing texts, not just their literal wording. This case narrows the line between permissible outreach and illegal solicitation under the TCPA.
The Federal Communications Commission has permanently banned voice service provider Belthrough LLC from connecting to U.S. telephone networks after repeated violations of robocall mitigation rules. All U.S. voice and intermediate providers must block incoming traffic from Belthrough within 48 hours...
Celebrity dentist Marc Lowenberg’s elite practice, located on the first and second floors of 230 Central Park South, has sued the building’s co‑op board over a new rule that forces commercial tenants to pay for an extra doorman when 30...
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones has joined a lawsuit filed by 23 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) interpretation of its Dodd‑Frank funding mechanism. The suit seeks a court order compelling the CFPB to request...
A Delaware federal judge granted Edelman Financial Engines a temporary restraining order that bars Prime Capital Advisors from using confidential information and soliciting Edelman's former clients. The order targets two former Edelman planners, Joan Greenspon and Amanda Salyer, who together...
Georgia’s 2026 General Assembly is advancing a suite of tax reforms as the session moves past the March 6 crossover deadline. Senate‑driven bills aim to dramatically increase the standard deduction to $50,000 for single filers and cut personal and corporate rates...
Missouri’s Senate Agriculture Committee approved SB 1005, a "failure‑to‑warn" bill that treats federally approved pesticides, including glyphosate, as meeting state cancer‑warning requirements. The measure, backed by farmer‑senators Jason Bean and Kurtis Gregory, aims to give growers certainty about glyphosate use across...
The Global Antitrust Enforcement Report for March 2026 shows total fines in surveyed jurisdictions rose to USD 7.7 billion in 2025, the highest level since 2021. At the same time, the number of infringement decisions fell to 279, down from 341 in 2024,...
On March 6, 2026 the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance released updated Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (CDIs) for Rule 701 equity compensation plans. The guidance raises the enhanced‑disclosure threshold to $10 million and clarifies that all employees receiving equity must receive the...
A FINRA arbitration panel cleared former Merrill Lynch broker Brian J. Mariash of a customer dispute, determining the complaints were spurious and updating his BrokerCheck record. The allegations stemmed from advice on equity‑indexed and variable annuities after Mariash moved to...
On April 16, 2026, Littler hosted a two‑hour Breakfast Briefing for New York employers at the Hilton Long Island. The session addressed a wave of state‑mandated changes covering pre‑hire credit checks, mandatory Narcan stocking, updated minimum‑wage and overtime rates, new...
The UK Home Office released the Fraud Strategy 2026‑2029, committing £250 million to combat fraud and cyber‑crime, with a focus on digital identity and biometric verification. The plan introduces a £30 million Online Crime Centre, tighter KYC for company directors, and a...
A federal court in the Eastern District of New York approved a $2.72 million class settlement in Carbone v. Limited Run Games, resolving Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) claims over Meta‑Pixel and other tracking tools. Plaintiffs alleged the company transmitted video‑viewing...
California and 16 other Democratic states have sued the Trump administration over a new Education Department rule that forces colleges to report detailed race, gender, GPA and test‑score data for applicants, admits and enrollees by March 18. The policy is presented...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved 22 waivers that let states restrict SNAP purchases of soda, candy, energy drinks and other sugary items. A coalition of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice and law firm Shinder Cantor...
The article examines why major law firms, collectively known as Biglaw, were caught off‑guard when the Epstein files were released, revealing their ties to the convicted sex offender. Despite years of warning, firms failed to activate a coordinated public‑relations plan,...
Israel’s military attorney general, Itay Offir, announced the dismissal of all charges against five soldiers accused of violently abusing and raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention centre. Prosecutors said the victim’s return to Gaza under the October 2025 cease‑fire...
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s dismissal of trade‑secret and wire‑fraud counts, holding that a prolonged good‑faith investigation does not violate the Due Process Clause. The court applied clear‑error review to factual findings but de novo...
Belgian prosecutors admitted they mistakenly implicated EU lawmaker Daniel Attard in a Huawei bribery probe, confusing him with a Maltese businessman of the same name. The error surfaced after the MEP asked for a double‑check of the suspect’s identity. The...
The February 2026 appellate roundup highlights several pivotal employment‑law decisions. The Fifth Circuit affirmed that overtime liability hinges on an employer’s actual or constructive knowledge of hours worked, rejecting a contractor’s claim of unlimited‑hour entitlement. The Sixth Circuit required age‑discrimination...
The Supreme Court’s preliminary ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta struck down California’s policy against forced outing of LGBTQ‑identifying students, framing the practice as a due‑process violation for parents even without religious objections. The decision builds on the Court’s earlier Mahmoud...
Proskauer Rose announced a series of senior hires to expand its private funds platform, adding partners with deep experience in fund formation, regulatory compliance, and capital‑markets transactions. The new talent bolsters the firm’s ability to serve private‑equity, venture‑capital and hedge‑fund...
Effective March 1, 2026, FinCEN’s Residential Real Estate Rule mandates filing a Real Estate Report for every non‑financed transfer of residential property to an entity or trust, regardless of value. The rule replaces the previous geographic targeting orders with a permanent, nationwide...
Sidley, the sixth‑ranked firm on the 2025 Am Law 100, announced an income‑partner tier that creates a nonequity partnership level. The move follows a wave of Biglaw firms—starting with Cravath’s salaried partner tier in 2023 and later Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, and...
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California challenging its stringent tailpipe emissions standards, arguing they force an unlawful rapid shift to electric vehicles. The suit follows congressional action that blocked California's plan to ban new gasoline car sales by...
U.S. regulators will propose easing Basel III endgame capital rules. Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman said duplicative capital‑calculation requirements will be removed and adjustments made for trading and mortgage exposures. The changes aim to shrink banks’ reserve buffers, freeing funds for...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the U.S. Department of Education halted its accuracy and call‑quality assessments of federal student‑loan servicers in February 2025, shortly after the Trump administration cut roughly half of the Education Department’s staff. This scaling back...
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-1230842275-220093c3ea0f42dd8809b3a62973883d.jpg)
The SEC continues to refine short‑selling regulations, balancing market stability with the benefits of price discovery. Historical measures such as the uptick rule and Regulation SHO laid groundwork for modern oversight, while the 2023 reporting mandate now forces institutional investors to...
The FDA’s Electronic Registration and Listing Compliance Program (eDRLS) safeguards the accuracy of drug registration and listing data that underpin inspections, electronic prescribing, and reimbursement systems. While automated validation rules catch many errors, the program also employs manual surveillance to...
Littler’s latest Lounge episode examines the EU Pay Transparency Directive as it takes shape across member states. The discussion outlines new recruiting disclosures, employee pay‑information rights, and varying reporting thresholds that firms must navigate. Hosts emphasize the need for precise...
Estate planning often pits equal splits against equitable distributions, especially when adult children have vastly different financial circumstances. Harry Margolis advises parents to address disparities through lifetime assistance or specialized tools rather than altering the will. Strategies like special‑needs trusts...
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed that the state Whistleblower Act shields employees even when they are involved in the wrongdoing they report, as held in Galvin v. Roxbury Community College. Thomas Galvin, the college’s chief compliance officer, was terminated after...
The article warns that AI music platforms have built their models on unlicensed recordings, especially from independent artists, and are now proposing “walled‑garden” licensing schemes with major labels. While Warner has struck a dual‑use deal, Suno and other firms reject...
On March 9, 2026 the U.S. DOT and FAA unveiled the Advanced Air Mobility and eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), selecting eight multi‑state projects to begin real‑world operations by summer 2026. The program gives manufacturers a structured pathway to fly in national...
The Internal Revenue Service issued a six‑page notice proposing amendments to the tax‑exempt refunding bond regulations. The changes would formally include 90‑day Treasury certificates in the definition of tax‑exempt bonds, clarifying how proceeds moved from State and Local Government Series...
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/GettyImages-1347124965-caed4aeab46f4ab297f1affa444a3d88.jpg)
Republican lawmakers have asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to use executive authority to index capital gains on primary residences to inflation. Indexing would adjust the cost basis, potentially reducing taxable gains for long‑term homeowners, especially higher‑income sellers. The proposal builds...
ERI, a Fresno‑based electronics recycling firm, filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Revivn Public Benefit Corp., alleging theft of trade secrets. ERI claims Revivn poached senior employees, including former senior director Justin LeDoux and logistics director Ross...
The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Promotion in Motion’s appeal, upholding the earlier finding that its SWISSKISS marks are likely to confuse consumers with Hershey’s chocolate trademarks, particularly the KISS element. The court affirmed that the SWISS component is merely...
The FDA has released an online searchable table of 249 pharmaceutical quality‑related guidances, MAPPs, and compliance programs. Recent entries include the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) Process Inspection compliance program (Sept 2025) and guidance on outsourcing facility inspections (Jan 2025). Topics span drug...
The on‑demand InfoTrack webinar, presented by attorney Drew Levine, teaches litigators how to balance broad discovery rights with privacy concerns. It covers proportionality, managing electronically stored information, and differences between state and federal discovery rules. The tutorial emphasizes practical, results‑focused...
The FDA provides a comprehensive suite of labeling resources aimed at industry staff who develop human prescription‑drug labeling, including DailyMed, Drugs@FDA, FDALabel, and Medication Guides. These tools grant access to over 140,000 labeling documents and detailed regulatory histories. The agency...
An enterprise AI contract‑review API that costs $1.58 per document exploded to a $1.6 million bill when exposed as an agentic API. An autonomous agent retried a single request thousands of times, and the pattern repeated across thousands of contracts, revealing...
Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced the Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act, targeting prediction‑market platforms that allow wagers on geopolitical events, insider trading, and underage gambling. The bill seeks to ban war‑related bets, impose consumer‑protection safeguards, and align these platforms with...
Canadian taxpayers continue to face TFSA overcontribution penalties, highlighted by a recent Federal Court case where the CRA’s denial of relief was upheld. The plaintiff had accumulated over $300,000 in excess contributions between 2021‑2023 and sought a waiver, arguing that...
Bob Robertson addressed Legalweek 2026’s Day 3 session, highlighting how artificial intelligence can integrate, synthesize, and analyze disparate client data for law firms. He emphasized AI‑driven platforms that translate complex datasets into intuitive visualizations for attorneys. The discussion underscored real‑time...
A coalition of major tech firms, including Google and Tesla, is rallying to expand U.S. power‑grid capacity as policymakers seek faster upgrades. The Department of Energy has opened a $1.9 billion funding opportunity aimed at urgently needed grid modernization projects. Parallel...
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been buying location data from the online advertising ecosystem, allowing the agency to track individuals' movements with minute‑level precision. The practice leverages advertising identifiers (AdIDs) that link devices to real‑time bidding markets, bypassing the...
OCR director Paula Stannard told HIMSS attendees that the HHS Office for Civil Rights is still reviewing 4,700 public comments on the Biden‑era HIPAA Security Rule proposal, which would impose stricter controls and longer implementation timelines. She warned that the...
Grammarly’s AI‑powered Expert Review feature attributed writing advice to real journalists, academics and authors, prompting a class‑action lawsuit filed by journalist Julia Angwin. Angwin’s attorney says 40 to 50 additional experts have joined the complaint, alleging unauthorized use of their...
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/TAL-canadian-passport-GETCANADAPSSPRT0326-ae852af7c91b44dfbfbff4ffd3cfb383.jpg)
Canada enacted Bill C‑3 in December, expanding citizenship by descent to unlimited generations. The change enables Americans with Canadian ancestry to claim citizenship using birth, baptismal, and marriage records, and also addresses the “lost Canadians” who were previously excluded. Eligibility...
